Homework Question

Rebuilding of Trust after a Conflict in ABC Company

Conflict, whether healthy or unhealthy is inevitable in any human interaction systems. In most cases, conflicts arise when there is no or inadequate communication between the parties involved. Disputes usually occur when an individual feels that they have a difference in opinion, interest or needs and are not respected by the other parties (Katz et al., 2020). It is when individuals feel they have different opinions and can’t possibly get to a middle ground when conflicts start.

According to the transcripts the interview who was a neutral party gave an equal chance for everyone to talk. In the interviews of all the members who were there he established their stand and gave his stand and then they came to an agreement. This is a good way of finding a common ground. Thomas as the boss should create an environment where employees perform but they do not always threatened in the sense that they can lose their jobs at any time. Job security and the trust that your boss is considerate is one thing that will help keep employees motivated in the work station. Employee retention is one of the results of finding a middle ground. Thomas believes that it’s high performance or nothing which is a wrong way of approaching the situation.

The interviewer leading the investigation uses open ended questions which are an effective way of making people feel like they are not losing control. For instance the interviewer asked Thomas “ Did you let Janet know if you were terminating Kareem or what did you do?” the question allows that Thomas gives an answer with context and he does. The type of questions removes the feel that one is being accused or fingers are being pointed instead of truth being sought. The middle ground would have been found and probably Kareem would still have his job.

Kareem should have reported to his immediate supervisor that he would need five breaks during his work time for prayers. Janet would have in turn communicated it Thomas and by so doing everybody would have been in the light and maybe respect Kareem’s prayer time. Kareem was disappointed with his untimely dismissal because he felt that he was doing the right thing; however, whatever he felt was right to him wasn’t right to his supervisors. This misunderstanding was brought by lack of communication between the two parties.

The supervisors on the hand didn’t tell Kareem of his dwindling performance and his ‘wandering’ around the office during working hours (Jagannath, Salen & Slovàk, 2020). Thomas instead chose to fire him without having a discussion with him on the same. In a healthy working environment, Thomas would have called Kareem for a conversation about how he will juggle work and prayer time and maybe they would both have reached an agreement. Performance is important but the wellbeing of employees is equally important too.

Kareem has a desire to accomplish his work well, and he is passionate about what he does. Both the work and prayer are vital to him. The two parties would have engaged in a talk on how prayer would come in between working hours since Kareem needed to do both. He should be recalled to work since he was an unfair dismissal and given a new guideline on how he should carry out his work henceforth. The management should also engage him on how best he can conduct his prayers without it adversely affecting his performance.

The team should then give a clear and straight forward communication on what is expected from each one of the team members. Everyone should lay down their expectations in writing and not assume anyone will know what to do without laid down procedures (SALVATION, 2019). For example, if the team should be meeting once a week, the team leaders should communicate the plan in good time. This will help the other team members to be prepared for the meeting.

The use of correct media of communication is essential, and it should not be done in a discriminatory manner. All members should be communicated to on a similar platform so that the interface is not altered from person to person. The reporting hierarchy should not be complicated too so that whenever a conflict arises, the junior members know where to channel their concerns immediately.

Wrong messages might result in misunderstandings and confusions, and team members might lose trust in each other. Always make sure your communication is clear and without malice, measure if your message will cause harm to your colleagues who in turn will brew a misunderstanding and further conflict in the organization. Controlling your emotions and actions is essential in communication, and an effective way of managing conflicts in any organization.

The only way to regaining trust is letting go of all control on both sides. Kathy reported that the environment in this call centre was tense. She had worked for the company for five years but only six months for this call centre. This means that there are better ways of handling leadership without it being dictatorship. Communication in an organization should be two ways where information trickles down to the employees and feedback of frustrations or concerns goes up to management. A healthy relationship is what gives birth to good performance not a relationship based on performance. Again the human resource department of this call centre should make sure that seminars on common ground are taught.

References

Jagannath, K., Salen, K., & Slovàk, P. (2020). "(We) Can Talk It Out...": Designing for Promoting Conflict-Resolution Skills in Youth on a Moderated Mine craft Server. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 4(CSCW1), 1-26.

Katz, N. H., Lawyer, J. W., Sweedler, M., Tokar, P., & Sossa, K. J. (2020). Communication and conflict resolution skills. Kendall Hunt Publishing.

SALVATION, M. D. (2019). Communication and Conflict Resolution in the Workplace. Dev Sanskriti Interdisciplinary International Journal, 13, 25-46.